China asks Russia to build 2 nuclear reactors-Tass

MOSCOW, Sep 27 (Reuters) China has invited Russia to build two more nuclear reactors at Tianwan power station on its eastern coast, Itar-Tass news agency quoted a senior official from the Russian contractor company as saying today.

Atomstroiexport, the building contractor arm of Russia's state atomic energy agency, has already built two 1.075-gigawatt reactors in Tianwan, in Jiangsu province, in a 1.6 billion dollars project led by state-run China National Nuclear Corp.

''A week ago we received a proposal from our Chinese customer to build reactors number three and four for the Tianwan nuclear power station,'' Atomstroiexport's first vice-president, Alexander Glukhov, told Tass.

Tass quoted Glukhov as saying Atomstroiexport had received a draft contract and was in talks on it. Glukhov said the draft could be finalised next year but gave no further details.

The first Tianwan reactor began commercial operation in May, and the second of the four planned units came on line in July after missing an earlier target of late 2006.

China plans to install 40,000 gigawatts of nuclear power generating capacity by 2020, an investment of 50 billion dollars in 30 reactors across the country, to fuel the energy demands of its expanding economy.

REUTERS PD HT2315